I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you till China and Africa meet
and the river jumps over the mountain
and the salmon sing in the street.W. H. Auden (21 Feb 1907 – 29 Sep 1973)

Today is Valentine’s Day!

Today — as I commemorate St. Valentinus, a saint from the third century of our era – I, rather than hold forth as usual, roam in time and space and defer to some explicit as well as allusive citations varyingly appropriate to this amatory occasion. Let each – like Auden’s adunaton (ἀδύνατον) — privately speak its suggestive message to you about the subject at hand, and let each merit our pensive attention.

正是江南好風景
落花時節又逢君zhèng shì jiāng nán hǎo fēng jǐng
luò huā shí jié yòu féng jūn
Truly the landscape south of the river is good,
I meet you again in the season of falling blossom.Du Fu (712 – 770 CE) and here.
[On “my Chinese” see my Full Disclosure at end of this piece.]

O! Könnt ich, was ich fühle, könnt ichs sagen! –
Doch keine Sprach’ ist mir dazu verliehn,Ah, if I could only say what I feel, if I just could —
But no language’s been granted me for that …Rainer Maria Rilke (4 Dec 1875 – 29 Dec 1926)

Love came to us in time gone by
When one at twilight shyly played
And one in fear was standing nigh — –
For Love at first is all afraid.James Joyce (2 Feb 1882 – 13 Jan 1941)

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden.
My words echo
Thus, in your mind.T. S. Eliot (26 Sep 1888 – 4 Jan 1965)